Selling Your Yearbooks
By Lynn Greenberg
When making your yearbook, you are trying to capture memories and history, but you also want to sell it! You want it to be appealing and affordable for your audience.
When is the best time to start selling your yearbook?
First question is, when is your yearbook distributed? Some schools hand out books in May, while others choose August – a lot depends on deadlines for submission and what you want to be included in the yearbook. For example, if you wish to have prom and graduation included, you may choose to distribute the yearbook in August.
Second question: when does your yearbook company say the deadline for submitting your orders?
Different Yearbook Companies have different deadlines for ordering yearbooks and final counts. Those deadlines could impact your decision on the best time to sell them.
Quick story: In my first year as the yearbook person I was with a company that did not provide a lot of information until after the deadlines had passed and then would call the principal and tell me I was late – YIKES! They wanted the yearbook orders completed by December (I was told this in January- oops)!
When I was with a new company the following year, I didn’t have to submit the final number of books until I submitted my yearbook – which was also much later than the previous company.
The next yearbook company I worked with at a different school building wanted my final order count by January. However, that required me to predict how many I’d sell while the online sales were still going on for another two months after that final count had to be turned in.
Third question: when you are the yearbook advisor, you wear many different hats, so you may want to move on from selling to focusing on designing and creating the yearbook.
When you decide to open your yearbook sales, it is up to you, and each school will have a different plan, but here are some ideas and things to consider when making your decision.
Opening your sale vs closing the sale. You can open your sale as early as you want. The closing of the sale will be a big deciding factor.
Is Fall your choice?
Beginning of School:
At the start of the year, there are all kinds of school forms to fill out, fees to pay, supply lists to buy, etc, so maybe it’s a good time to get the information about and open online ordering. This reaches people who are already in the frame of mind to address these types of tasks. Offering an early bird discount might be enticing to get those orders placed!
October/November/December:
For families involved in Fall season activities or sports, November feels like the first break since the end of school last year, and they can take a moment to catch up! Back-to-school activities, homecoming, fall activities, or sports seasons are over, and with fewer distractions, this time of year is the in-between time and pre-holiday time. Again, creating an early bird discount before winter break, before holiday expenses become a focus, is a great way to get the orders in earlier than later!
Do you prefer Winter?
New Semester/New Year:
Back from the holidays and winter break, the new focus on the rest of the year and the end of the year is not too far off, but ready to get yearbook sales into focus!
Can you wait until Spring?
If your yearbook isn’t being distributed until August and your yearbook company doesn’t need your final numbers until later, then consider selling your yearbook in the Spring!
Selling incentives:
Early Bird pricing – help get the sales in early by encouraging people to order right away with lower pricing with a quick deadline.
Coupons – Offer a coupon to students who submit photos, agree to photograph an event, or are part of the yearbook staff, or many other reasons that work for you!
Online sales only, In-person sales, or both?
For me, offering only online sales was a huge relief. I was an elementary school advisor. I created an order form with all the information and a tear-off part at the bottom asking for the student’s name, grade, homeroom teacher, parents’ names, phone number, and number of books ordered; it seems simple, right? No! The number of orders that did not have a form filled out or just an envelope of cash with no indication of who it belonged to was a headache! There were many chances for problems, whether it was missing information, the wrong amount written on the check or who it was made out to, or misplaced between home to school to office to me. Once the online option was available, many of the problems fixed themselves – accounting went smoother because we could track the payments and not worry about losing the money. Distribution became easier, too, because I could require the names and homeroom teachers’ names. It also made it easier for parents to track their ordering if they couldn’t remember if they bought a book or not.
I always let the school office know that if someone with a valid reason couldn’t order online, I would consider an exception, but handling the money, checks, or cash was a concern of mine.
SELL, SELL, SELL
Marketing the yearbook! How will you get the word out?
Flyers – Does your school allow flyers to go home with each student, or do they have an online site?
Announcements – include the yearbook sale in the morning announcements
Principal Emails – Does your principal send out an email each week with important information? Make sure the information is in there
Teacher Emails – Do the homeroom teachers send out weekly emails, ask that they include the yearbook information
Picture Day – Include a flyer home with the picture day order page
Social Media – spread the word via Facebook parent groups, Instagram pages, X, or however your school community communicates with each other
Did you enjoy this blog? Well there’s more with that came from, discover Yearbook Groupie! A collaborative forum and blog site for yearbook advisors.